Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Sep;36(5):1697-1713.
doi: 10.1002/hpm.3240. Epub 2021 Jun 1.

The impact of retirement on mental health

Lin Xie  1 , Yingxi Shen  2 , Yuanyang Wu  2 , Hualei Yang  2
Affiliations

The impact of retirement on mental health

Lin Xie et al. Int J Health Plann Manage. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

After 2020, with Chinese baby boomers growing old, more and more working people will step into retirement. What kind of influence retirement behaviour will have on the mental health of the older adults and whether the existing findings of retirement on the mental health of the older adults are applicable to China's current conditions? The answers are related to the improvement of the well being of older adults and future policy orientation. Based on the China Family Tracking Survey data in 2016 and 2018, the paper employed the Ordinary Least Squares, Two Stage Least Squares, and Propensity Score Matching methods to investigate the effect of retirement on the mental health of older adults in China. Results show that retirement can significantly reduce the depression and has a positive impact on the their mental health, and no chronic diseases, poor economic status and shorter education years are conducive to improve mental health of the elderly. Further, the mechanisms differ between the sexes that while exercise is a positive mediator for both sexes, reading and family dinners are positive mediators for men but not for women.

Keywords: CFPS; China; depression; mental health; retirement.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Tian XY. China's Population Aging and the Risk of Middle-income Trap. 17. Berlin: Springer; 2017.
    1. Bossé R, Aldwin CM, Levenson MR, Workman-Daniels K. How stressful is retirement? findings from the normative aging study. J Gerontology. 1991;46(1):P9-P14. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronj/46.1.p9
    1. Salokangas RKR, Joukamaa M. Physical and mental health changes in retirement age. Psychother Psychosom. 1991;55(2-4):100-107. https://doi.org/10.1159/000288415
    1. Minkler M. Research on the health effects of retirement: an uncertain legacy. J Health Soc Behav. 1981;22(2):117-130.
    1. Dave D, Rashad I, Spasojevic J. The effects of retirement on physical and mental health outcomes. South Econ J. 2008;75:497-523. https://doi.org/10.3386/w12123

LinkOut - more resources